Nuala O'Malley Read online

  CHAPTER VI.

  BRIAN TAKES CAPTIVES.

  "_Failte abhaile!_ Welcome, Yellow Brian!"

  "So you won back before me, eh?" Brian swung down from his horse andgripped hands with old Turlough Wolf. "Get the men camped, Cathbarr,then join us."

  Turlough's cunning eyes rested on the wagons and weary horsemen, and henodded approvingly as Brian told him of what had chanced.

  "Said I not that you were a master of men?" he chuckled quietly, as heturned to follow into Cathbarr's tower. "But it is easier to master menthan women, Brian. I bear you a bitter rede from the Bird Daughter,master."

  "Hard words fare ill on empty stomachs," quoth Brian. "Keep it till Ihave eaten."

  When Cathbarr had joined them and they had dined well on Royalist storesand wine, Turlough made report on his mission. It seemed that he had metwith a party of the O'Malleys at the head of Kilkieran Bay at the closeof his first day's ride, and after hearing his errand they had taken himin their ship out to Gorumna Isle, where stood the hold of Nuala, theBird Daughter. And somewhat to his own amazement, Turlough had foundthat by this same name she was known along the whole coast.

  He reported that it was a strong place, for the castle had been built byher father; that she had two large ships and five small ones, and thatboth ships and castle were defended by all manner of "shot"--meaningcannon. She had just returned from Kinsale, where she had been aidingBlake hold Prince Rupert's fleet in the bay. Now Rupert had slippedaway, and after plundering a French ship with wines, she had come homeagain.

  "She seems a woman of heart," smiled Brian. "What of her looks?"

  "I did not see her." Turlough shook his head. "She ordered my messagewritten out, so she has some clerkly learning. She took an hour toponder it, master, then set me ashore with this message.

  "'Tell Yellow Brian,' she ordered, 'that I claim tribute from Golam Headto Slyne. I will make no pact with him until he pay me tribute; and if Ifind him on my land I will set him in chains above my water-gate.'"

  Brian felt no little dismay at this, for he had counted strongly onalliance with this Bird Daughter.

  However, Turlough proceeded to set forth the reasons for such a message,as he had conceived them within his shrewd mind. First, it seemed thatthe pestilence had visited Gorumna in the absence of its mistress, andthat the Dark Master had caught a score of the O'Malleys who had beenwrecked in Bertraghboy Bay, promptly hanging them all. Between theplague and the hanging Nuala had a bare fourscore men left within thecastle, and she counted Brian's offer as a ruse on the part ofO'Donnell, for she was strongly afraid of treachery.

  "There is more pride than power in that message," commented Cathbarreasily. "The Dark Master has stripped away all her lands along thecoast, and save for Kilkieran Bay she has little left. Let us fall onher, brother, and take what _is_ left."

  Brian laughed at this naive counsel, looking at Turlough. But the oldWolf said nothing, brooding over the fire, and Brian reflected withinhimself.

  He had come into a merciless feud, that he knew well. If he was to enterupon it he must banish all pity from his heart, which was no easy thingfor him; but Turlough related things he had heard which speedily changedhis mind. There were tales of O'Donnell's ridings through the land, ofmen slaughtered and women carried off to people his castle; oftreachery, and worse.

  It was also whispered that the Dark Master had made alliance withcertain pirates from the north coast.

  However, Brian knew that he must reach some decision regarding his ownmen, and that speedily. The three talked long that night, setting asidethe question of the O'Malley alliance for the time being. Brian had sometwo hundred men to house and horses to feed; he had good store ofprovision and powder, but Cathbarr's little tower was utterly useless tohouse the tenth of them all, while the stores would have to besheltered. Then O'Donnell might fling his men on them at any moment,which would mean disaster in their present position.

  Cathbarr suggested an attack on Bertragh castle, but Turlough dissented.

  "When we strike, we must strike to win," he said shrewdly. "The DarkMaster has more men than we, and the sea is at his back, and they say heis a warlock to boot."

  The giant stared and crossed himself at talk of warlocks, but Brianlaughed out.

  "I have a plan," he said, fingering his sword. "O'Donnell watches allthe hill-paths like a hawk, even now in winter. Those wagons are of nogreat use to us, and we can store the goods here in the tower for thepresent. Get it done to-night, Cathbarr, and get the accouterments fromtwo of those largest Scots for yourself and me."

  Turlough Wolf chuckled suddenly, and Brian knew that the old man hadpierced to something of his plan. But not all.

  "Turlough," he went on as the scheme came to him more clearly, "at dawnride out with a hundred men to that hill-road where first we met theDark Master. Hide the men in the hills, and be ready to ride hard whenthe time comes. Cathbarr, before the dawn breaks have the wagons startout with twenty of the Scots troopers as escort. Bid as many more as canlie down in the wagons and cover up close with their muskets. Send a manor two with them to guide to that hill-road of which I spoke. We willride after and catch them up shortly after sunrise."

  "Good!" roared out the giant, whose brains lay all in his ax. "And theDark Master will swoop down to the feast, eh?"

  "He will not," returned Brian dryly. "He will send two or threescore menupon us, and it is my purpose to take as many of these prisoner as maybe."

  Cathbarr stared, and Turlough's gray eyes squinted up at Brian.

  "How is this, master?" he asked inquiringly. "It is too good a trap towaste on prisoners--"

  "My plan is my plan," said Brian briefly. "I am not making war onO'Donnell, but I intend to pay tribute to the Bird Daughter, and thatright soon. While we are gone have a score of men remain here and buildhuts on the cliffs, Cathbarr."

  Turlough fell to staring into the fire, divining the plan at length, andCathbarr went out to fulfil his orders. Brian knew well that there wasdanger in the scheme, but he determined to deal with one thing at atime, and thoroughly. Just at present he was intent on forming analliance with Nuala O'Malley, for ships and cannon were needful beforehe could nip the Dark Master in his hold. It was going to cost the livesof men, and he made up his mind not to pause for that. If he was to liveand make head it must be by the strong hand alone--the Red Hand ofTyr-owen; and he looked down at the ring of Owen Ruadh and took it for asymbol, as his ancestors had taken it.

  Before they went to rest Turlough pointed out that if the hills werewatched he and his hundred would be noted, so Brian bade him hit backtoward Lough Corrib and then to come straight down upon the main road.It might be that he could overcome the Dark Master's men of himself, andif not, he would hold them until Turlough came up.

  With this plan arranged, then, the four wagons set forth under the coldstars, with thirty Scots lying hidden and twenty riding before andbehind. With the first gleam of dawn Turlough and his hundred canteredoff to the northeast, and an hour later Brian and Cathbarr put on thebuff coats and steel jacks of the troopers, with the wide morions; tooka pair of loaded pistols, and galloped after the slow-moving wagons.Brian wore his Spanish blade, but Cathbarr had sent his ax ahead withthe troopers.

  They caught up with the wagons when the latter were entering upon theroad proper out of the hill-track they had followed. The first snows hadvanished for the most part, leaving bleak, gaunt hills and rugged cragsthat twisted with soft fog. The sun struck the fog away, however, and asBrian rode on he gazed up at the purple mountains on his right, and downat the purple bog to his left, and caught the gleam of the Bertraghboywater out beyond. He laughed as he drank in the keen air of morning.

  "Best get your edge ready, Cathbarr of the Ax!"

  Cathbarr grunted, and slung the heavy hammer-ax at his saddlebow. One ofthe guides, who were from the Dark Master's twoscore men, pointed to atwisted peak on their right, whence an almost invisible spiral of graysmoke wound up.

  "The signal,
Yellow Brian," he grinned, cheerfully giving away hissecrets. In fact, all those twoscore men rather hoped that their oldmaster would be crushed by Brian, for so long as there was booty insight they cared not whom they served.

  Half an hour later Brian saw ahead of him that same bend of road wherefirst he and Turlough had met O'Donnell Dubh. But there was no sign ofTurlough, and he cantered ahead to see if the O'Donnell men were below.As he did so a bullet sang past his ear, and he whirled to see half adozen of his men go down beneath a storm of lead from the hillsides; atthe same instant some three-score men came scrambling down from amongthe rocks--those same rocks where he had first laid ambush for the DarkMaster.

  And riders were coming up on the road below!

  He was caught very neatly, and caught by more men than he had lookedfor. The remainder of the twenty gathered behind him and Cathbarr, andthe thirty rose among the wagons and for a moment stopped the assaultwith their musketry; but before the smoke had cleared away two-scorehorsemen came thundering up the road from behind the curve, and struck.

  "Albanach! Albanach!"

  The wild yells shrilled up, and the Scots troopers knew that they werefighting without quarter in sight, for the "Albanach," as they weretermed in Gaelic, gave and got little mercy in Ireland. The saddles ofthe fallen were filled from the men in the wagons, and leaving themusketeers to hold off the unmounted men, Brian plunged into the swirlof fighting horsemen and joined Cathbarr.

  The odds were heavy, but the big claymores of the Scots were heavierstill. Side by side, Brian and Cathbarr plunged through the ranks, swordbiting and ax smiting, until they stood almost alone among theO'Donnells, for their men had been borne back. Then the giant bellowedand his ax crushed down a man stabbing at Brian's horse; Brian pistoledone who struck at Cathbarr's back, and pressing their horses head totail they faced the circle of men, while behind them roared the battle.

  For a moment the O'Donnells held off, recognizing the pair, then one ofthem spurred forward with a howl of delight.

  "_Dhar mo lamh_, Yellow Brian--your head to our gates!"

  Brian thrust unexpectedly, and the man went over his horse's tail as thering closed in. So far Cathbarr had forgotten his pistols, but now heused them, and took a bullet-crease across his neck in return; then theax and sword heaved up together, and the ring surged back. A skean wenthome in Cathbarr's horse, however, and the giant plunged down, but withthat Brian spurred and went at the O'Donnells with the point of hisblade. This sort of fighting was new to them, and when Brian had spittedthree of them he heard Cathbarr's ax crunch down once more.

  They were still cut off from the wagons, but there came a wild drummingof hoofs, and wilder yells from the men on the hillside. Like athunder-burst, Turlough and his hundred broke on the battle. TheO'Donnells were swallowed up, stamped flat; the unmounted men fled amongthe rocks, Turlough's men after them, and a dozen horsemen wentstreaming down the road.

  It was hard to make the maddened Scots take prisoners, but Brian did it,and when Turlough's men came back he found that they had in all thirtycaptives. Some forty of the attackers had fallen and the rest had fled.

  Since all his captives expected no less than a quick death, Brianordered ten of them bound on spare horses, of which there were plenty.He himself had lost twenty-three of his Scots, and the remaining scoreof captives cheerfully took service under him. Then, picking out one ofthem, he gave the man a horse and told him to ride home.

  "Tell your master, O'Donnell Dubh," he said, "that his men made thisattack on me, and therefore there is war between us."

  The man grinned and departed at a gallop, and word passed through themen that the Dark Master had found his match at last. As to this,however, they were fated to change their opinion later.

  "Now," said Brian to old Turlough, as between them they bound up a slashin Cathbarr's thigh, "do you put the wounded in the wagons and begonehome again. Set out sentries against an attack from O'Donnell, andscatter a score of men out along the roads to watch for other parties.You might pick up another score of recruits, Turlough Wolf."

  Turlough shook his head and tugged at his beard.

  "Best take me with you, master, instead of this overgrown ox. You mayneed brains in dealing with the Bird Daughter, and he has no more brainsthan strew his ax-edge. Also he is wounded."

  Brian pondered this, while Cathbarr furtively shook a fist at Turlough.There was wisdom in the advice, but on the other hand Brian did not liketo leave his precious two hundred men in care of Cathbarr. If the DarkMaster attacked suddenly, as he was like to do, brains would be moreneeded than brawn.

  On the other hand, he counted on Cathbarr's open face removing theevident suspicion that the smooth-tongued Turlough had raised in GorumnaIsle. It had been a mistake, he saw plainly, to send such an emissary onhis mission. Picturing this woman who led her own ships to war, helimned her in his mind as a large-boned, flat-breasted, wide-hippedcreature--and with good reason. He had seen women fighting at Droghedaand he had seen them in other places as he rode to the rest, for inthose days many a woman took her slain lord's _skean fada_ and drewblood for Ireland before she was cut down. And when women rode to battlethere was no mercy asked or given, from Royalist or Confederate orParliament man.

  Nuala O'Malley was a woman of blood, said Brian to himself, and he wouldgive her blood for her help.

  So he curtly refused Turlough's advice, saw that the ten bridles of hisbound and mounted captives were lined together, and beckoned toCathbarr. Before they rode off, however, they doffed their Scotaccouterments and took back their own garments, after which Cathbarr ledthe way over the hills to Kilkieran Bay, and Turlough took command ofthe force in sullen ill-humor.

  The morning was still young, for the attack had taken place a short twohours after sunrise and had soon been quelled. Beyond a slashed thighand a red-creased neck, Cathbarr of the Ax was unhurt, and Brian hadreceived no scratch. If the ten captives wondered why they were boundand their comrades freed, they said nothing of it.

  Even after seeing what he had of the merciless war in Ireland, Brian hadmuch ado in making up his mind to hold to the plan he had formed on theprevious evening. These ten ruffians were scoundrels enough, to judge bylooks, and yet they were men; and he had been raised in no such schoolof war as this, where surrender meant slaughter without pity. However,he determined to do what he could for them, and he would have held tothis determination had it not been for what chanced when they rode downto the little fishing village where Turlough had met the O'Malley men.

  They arrived just as the evening was darkling, after a hard day's ride.

  As they came within sight of the place, which lay at the head ofKilkieran water, Brian made out that a small galley was pulled up onshore, and there were a number of men about the huts. Upon the approachof the two chiefs with their file of captives there was an instantscurry of figures; women ran to the huts, and a dozen or more roughlyclad men appeared with pikes and muskets. Brian held up his hand in signof peace and rode slowly onward, Cathbarr at his side, to within a dozenpaces of the huts.

  "Who are you?" cried out one of the musketeers. "Be off!"

  "Bark less, dog," said Brian, scorn in his eye. "We seek Nuala O'Malley.Take us out to Gorumna Isle in your boat."

  "What seek ye with the Bird Daughter?" queried the other suspiciously.

  "Her business, not yours."

  The seamen gazed at them doubtfully, then a number of other men camefrom the huts, well-armed. One of these set up a cry, pointing at thecaptives, and a burst of yells answered him from the rest. Next instantBrian and Cathbarr had their weapons out and were facing an excitedcrowd of men.

  "Be silent, dogs!" bellowed Cathbarr, and his voice quelled the uproar."What means this attack? Would you have the Bird Daughter strip you withwhips, fools?"

  The spokesman stood out, his dark face quivering with fury as hepointed.

  "That is as it may be, axman, but first those bound men shall die. Oneis the man who slew my brother, nailing him to his
own door till hedied; another is he who burned Lame Art's wife and child lastWhit-Sunday--"

  "There is he who lopped my husband's hands and nose! Slay him!" shriekedout a hag as she burst forward. Brian held out his sword and she drewback, but instantly others had taken up the cry.

  "And the devil who hung Blind Ulick!"

  "There is he who--"

  In that brief moment Brian heard things too horrible for speech. The tenbound men had grouped together, some pale as death, others laughingdefiantly. But as the crowd surged forward Brian held up his sword, andthey paused to listen; he knew now that there was no more pity in hisheart for these black ruffians of O'Donnell's.

  "Let the Bird Daughter render judgment upon them," he shouted. "Friends,take us to the Bird Daughter and let her do as she will, for I bearthese men to her alone."

  At that the crowd fell silent, but their leader gave a rapid order, andhalf a dozen men ran down to the strand. Another order, and the maddenedvillagers gave back as the seamen closed about Brian and Cathbarr andtheir captives.

  "Come," said the leader roughly. "You shall go to Gorumna Isle with us,strange men, but I do not think that you shall ever come back again."

  "Nor do I," grinned Cathbarr in the ear of Brian, as they left theirhorses to the fishermen, unbound the prisoners from their steeds, andmade their way down to the galley. Brian looked at his friend, and theyboth smiled grimly.